[Nuke]

you also got to make sure you dont turn them on and off too frequently. people dont realize that they eat tones of power at startup, probably more than leaving it on all day.

[Blue Lion]

Most items have a startup listing too. Well, it's not hard to find what it is.

[perihelion]

you also got to make sure you dont turn them on and off too frequently. people dont realize that they eat tones of power at startup, probably more than leaving it on all day.

More "power" during start up than "leaving it on all day?"  ... I assume you meant "energy" as "power" makes no sense in that context.  And if so, I'm going to have to call bull****?  I mean, no question, they use significantly more power and energy both during startup than during steady-state operation, but there's no way in hell it uses more energy in the first couple minutes than that expended by running it an entire day.

Do the math.  A 12W lightbulb uses 518.400 kJ in a 12 hour day.  Assuming the startup is two minutes long, that would be 518.400kJ in two minutes.  That's 4320 W.  Thru a light socket?  Really?

[Blue Lion]

Mythbusters did a thing on this for lightbulbs

[Nuke]

you also got to make sure you dont turn them on and off too frequently. people dont realize that they eat tones of power at startup, probably more than leaving it on all day.

More "power" during start up than "leaving it on all day?"  ... I assume you meant "energy" as "power" makes no sense in that context.  And if so, I'm going to have to call bull****?  I mean, no question, they use significantly more power and energy both during startup than during steady-state operation, but there's no way in hell it uses more energy in the first couple minutes than that expended by running it an entire day.

Do the math.  A 12W lightbulb uses 518.400 kJ in a 12 hour day.  Assuming the startup is two minutes long, that would be 518.400kJ in two minutes.  That's 4320 W.  Thru a light socket?  Really?

ok maybe not, but my point remains. blinking the damn things will reduce their life and eat power like a mother****er. apparently the newer electronic ballasts used are a lot more efficient than the old skool magnetic ones that im familiar with.

[perihelion]

No argument there.  The same truth holds for pretty much any piece of equipment, electrical or otherwise.  Most things run best in steady-state.  Frequent on/off cycling will reduce your MTTF (mean time to failure) whether it is a lightbulb or an air-conditioner or a computer or a lawnmower.

[Mika]

I don't know about the longevities of computers, last 3 computers my parents had lasted something like 10 years each. Each of them used the same hard disk all the time. And they were frequently turned on and off, probably something like 6-8 times a day, sitting most of the time off. The CRT monitors they had still work. My CRT tube (7 years old by now) seems to show more red and red colors, though this still can be offset with ATI controllers. Which doesn't seem to remember which corrections I made.

Strangely, the only computers in my experience that had HDD failures were the ones that were not turned on and off all the time. That would be my former laptop and desktop machines at work that were basically on all the time. At some point I did learn to switch off the power saving mode for HDD, which would have been the contributing case.

How can you exactly break a lawnmower? Briggs & Stratton powered ones have been quite reliable. Don't get me started on Aspera, though...

One thing about Compact Fluorsecent Lamps, be careful when they break down. Some of them do contain stuff that would be considered poisonous. And if this is power saving depends on the location where you live. Some people say here that banning incandescent lamps will not lower the energy consumption. Why? The released heat will heat up the house, and this being a cold area, it is a positive thing. Otherwise heating system has to compensate for the change.

Mika

[perihelion]

[checks outdoor thermometer]  No.  I don't need anything putting extra heat into this house.  My A/C is already running almost full-time as it is.

As for breaking the lawnmower... you know, that made more sense in my head at the time I was typing it.  I think I was thinking about how I've had some lawnmowers seize up on me after not having run them for several months, but that's not really the same thing as on/off'ing them to death.  [shakes head]  Blame it on trying to substitute caffeine for sleep, I guess.

[Nuke]

i find that computers go obsolete long before they fail if they were well designed and handled when built even with constant on off cycles. it was a consensus when i went to networking school that it was better to leave your computers on all the time. i thought that was rediculous, and even more so now. if you consider the power usage of a high performance computer, which can be 300 watts at idle. you save more money by shutting it down when not in use than you would replacing parts because of failure. with low performance computers it really doesnt matter because the stresses on the system are much lower, as is the power usage.

[Mongoose]

I know I'd never be able to leave my computer on at night, even if I wanted to.  With Dell's crappy case design and the P4 in there, my sole variable-speed fan would be making its annoying whine all night long and keep me up quite nicely. Not to mention the fact that, especially in summer, it turns my room into a furnace.

[Liberator]

I had the same problem, except that my room turned into a furnace anyway, it's the only upstairs room in a partially finished attic in Alabama.  I had a 5200 BTU window unit and it did it's thing for about 8 or 9 years.  It slowly over the last couple of years got to where it wouldn't work any more so while it was cooler in my room it was like 90 or 95 inside my door(kept shut at all times) and 120 or 130 outside my door.  Replaced it about a month ago with a 8000 BTW unit.